Tag Archives: knitted socks

I’ve made Jaywalkers before. I have in actuality made eight complete pairs of Jaywalkers. That’s sixteen individual socks. I know how this pattern goes. I know what to cast on, and when to start the heel. I know when to start the toe. I know how to tell if a yarn will be too tight or too loose, and how to fix that so that the socks will fit perfectly. Most importantly, I know how they should look.

I know that if it is a self-striping yarn it will most likely look something like this.

Or maybe this.

Or maybe even like this.

I use this pattern with self-striping yarns because it works so well. The pattern does not overpower the yarn, nor does the yarn in any way overwhelm the pattern. They are a wonderful compliment to each other, a perfect synergy of yarn and pattern that blends beautifully to make my favourite socks. These socks are reliable. They are stable. They are ever-present. They are Jaywalkers.

Until now. The only things I can say us that this pair, my newest of my beloved Jaywalkers, is having an identity crisis. They have no idea what they want to be.

Truly, there is some multiple personality disorder happening here. Big stripes, little stripes, all out chaos? Sure! Why not? Forget order. Defy expectation! Be whatever you want to be. And while you’re at it, befuddle your knitter. Leave her shaking her head and wondering what the heck is happening and if the second sock is in any way going to match the first. It’s all just so much more fun this way!

The paper,

This past weekend I went with my hubby to return some books to our local library and came across Cinderella Girl by Carin Gerhardsen. It’s a Swedish murder mystery that I had heard a few rumblings about. It is the second novel in a series, but I didn’t realize that and jumped right in. This book is working fine as a stand alone, and while there is some back story that probably would have been better filled in, it’s not difficult to infer what’s not actually there.

Here’s the thing. This novel is written exactly they way you would expect a Scandinavian novel (or movie) to be written. The pacing is different. It is slow and very methodical. It’s barely over 300 pages, and it took until page 80 for the first murder (in a book that claims to be a murder mystery) to occur. I’m still not certain who the main character is, or how pretty much any of the separate story lines connect. Currently it’s just all sharing the same space in between the same covers.

I would like to point out that none of this is making for a bad read. This book is neither unenjoyable or horrid. It just is. It is contemplative and detailed and a rather easy read.

I mentioned earlier this week that I am currently in a race with the yarn that I am using for my SIL’S Christmas socks. There are only two competitors in this dash to the finish line: me and a the remnants of the a skein of Poppy yellow label from Tanis Fibre arts. Right now I think we are in a dead tie, still going neck to neck. The good news is, we have passed the halfway mark. The first sock is finished and while the leg is a tiny bit shorter than I would otherwise make it, I’m certainly not going to attempt to add any additional length by doing something foolish like frogging back and adding more rows.

This is now the time when the real race begins. There was never any doubt that I would conquer the first sock. The question has always been the second. The accursed second sock. The sock that can make or break the whole deal. The sock that will either catapult me to victory or leave me weeping uncontrollably in the corner with nothing but an unfinished sock with which to dry my eyes. That is the sock that I am starting. With uncertainty being my only companion in the fray, I am jumping in head first.

Keep your fingers crossed that when I emerge, there I will be a with a big smile and warm toes.

This week’s fibre is a little bit of a risk. Well maybe it’s not. It’s almost certainly, maybe, not a risk. Here’s the deal. I’ve started my SIL’S Christmas socks. The pattern is Lumberjacks. The pattern is not the risk. The pattern is awesome. This is my third pair in as many months. It’s great. The colour is fine. She’ll love red socks. The yarn is great too, but it’s also the problem. You see the pattern calls for a huge amount of yardage for each pair of socks. I’m not sure if it’s a difference in gauge, but according to the pattern I should need just over a skein of the master colour for a pair of men’s socks. As it turns out I need less than a skein. I fair bit less than a skein. So considering that I only used the red for the heels and toes for my hubby’s socks, and the ladies socks have fewer stitches per round and fewer rounds over all, I should need a much smaller amount of yarn than with the men’s socks. So I should have enough red yarn. It seems reasonable to think that. In fact it seems foolish to think anything else. I’m almost certain this will work.
A yarn scale would make my life easier and happier. But that would require me to know where my scale is and right now I kind of sort of don’t. And anyway, it’s way more fun not knowing and having the anxiety spur me on. It will make me a faster knitter since we all know that if you knit super fast you will in fact avert a pending yarn shortage. But that’s not going to happen. I think.

The Paper

This week I finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy. As the story progresses you realize that it is, at its core, a very complex discussion on humanity and human nature. It asks the question, how do we retain our humanity in the face of insurmountable odds? Why do some people maintain a moral code of conduct that is reflective of current values, and others morph into something abhorrent? Or are do some people adapt while others cling to the past? It’s a fantastic metaphor for heaven and hell. It’s both brutally grim at times and uplifting in its depiction of a father and son’s unwavering love. I’m not certain I can recommend this book, but if you can deal with the writing style and very dark content it is worth the read.

For more great Wednesday stuff check out the Yarn Along at Ginny’s and KCCO at Frontierdreams.

This is going to be a very Canadian post. It is still about knitting, but it has a very Canadian feel about it today.

First, it’s bloody cold here. I realize that it gets cold everywhere in the winter, and that most people can say that their winters are also bloody cold. Cold is certainly relative to the person who is saying it and I would never deny anyone that statement. But, here today, in the grip of a winter that finally decided to stay, it’s -23 C when you factor in the wind chill. According to the Internet that is -9.4F. And while we are certainly not the coldest place in Canada right now, I can and will say it’s cold. We are in fact in a Canadian winter and the myths and legends are true. We freeze.

Secondly, I have started another pair of Lumberjack socks. These ones are for my Brother in law and will be part of his Christmas gift. I admit that there is nothing overly Canadian happening here, unless you count that I am using Tanis Yarn, which is Canadian and a pattern that is also written by Canadians.

However, here’s the part that makes these very Canadian today. Any time I am working on these and not distracted by a movie or a TV show or chatting with the hubby, the only (and I do mean the only) thing that goes through my head is The Log Drivers Waltz. (It is actually animated, just get past the black and white scene first). Canadians of a certain age will no doubt know exactly what I’m talking about. This little short would come on in between TV shows in place of commercials on the CBC sometimes, and by a very early age we all knew the words or at least the tune. Now as adults, we will sometimes bond over this little Canadian Film industry short. It’s happen more than once when a group of us will burst into song, often to the befuddled looks of the non-knowing. And that’s what I think of when I work on these socks.

So there it is. I’m freezing my arse off in Canadian Winter, knitting with Canadian yarn, making a pattern created by Canadians, and I have the most Canadian of all short films as an earworm. (Ed. Note – The Sweater might be more Canadian but we disqualify it because we were forced to watch it in school.) This is my very Canadian day.

It’s been a while. A long while. There were times in the last few months that I thought about writing again, that little nagging voice in the back corner of my brain urging me back to the keyboard. But in all truth, I just wasn’t that inspired. I have been knitting, but the groove wasn’t there. So I waited. I felt a little guilty when people would ask me when I was going to write again and was flattered when they told me that they missed my blog. But I waited, knowing that at some point that light would go on and things would click and I would type and words would flow. And really, because it’s me, I should have known it would be socks. Socks would bring me back to the fold. Socks would be my downfall.

I didn’t know it would be these socks when I started them on Saturday. But by the time I was finished the first one yesterday, (Yes that would be Monday. And yes you did read that right. I knit a whole sock in just over a day), I knew. I thought about taking pictures of hourly progress, but I would have had to put the socks down and that wasn’t going to happen. But let tell you, these socks are freaking magnificent!!!!

I love these and since they are made with a heavier gage yarn, the knit up super, crazy fast. Four episodes of Nightvale Radio and the leg was finished. That’s just over an hour. Hour and a half maybe. And I was staring, actually gawking, at the fact that I was a mere three rows away from the heel. Also, I sort of think that these might be the cutest damn, (really autocorrect? I am a grown woman! Yes I mean damn and not dam! I don’t want to make dam socks! What fibre would you even use for that)? Socks that I have made in a super long time. Another huge plus, all that ribbing makes them super flexible with the sizing and if you’re like me and have a sock recipient that has slightly different size feet, these are super awesome.

I will agree with the husband though. Not everybody will get these socks. Non fibre people will likely look at them and shake their heads. You made work socks? The same socks you can get by the bag full for pennies? I sort of envision the whole exchange going down like a Nature of Things special voiced over by Morgan Freeman.
“Note how the sock recipient proudly displays his socks for the non fibre person to admire. This is akin to a plumage display by a peacock and serves two very important purposes. First, it allows the wild knitter’s work to be on display thus allowing her or him to have fibre dominance over the situation. Secondly, it shows the world that the recipient has already been claimed by a knitter and therefore if any other knitter wishes to enter this territory permission must be requested and granted. Watch how the wild knitter answers with confidence, his or hers eye narrowing ever so slightly, “why yes. I did make those.” An astute observer will note the fleeting look of supremacy on the wild fibre person. And as it always happens, the non fibre person sheepishly nods and agrees before slowly backing away. And the wild knitter and the sock recipient smile at each other knowing a secret that the scientific community has yet to decipher”.

And we do. We know the secret. We know that hand knit socks will always be better than store bought socks. We know that these knit up super fast and that they weren’t mass produced by some exploited laborer stuck in crappy working conditions so we could have 25 cent socks that last two months before looking like they were attacked by the mother of all moths. We know that love makes socks warmer. I know that these socks are awesome, and now, so do you.

Because I know that people will be curious, the yarn is Tanis Fibre arts yellow label in sand and poppy. And yes there is only one sock right now. The second looks like this.

Just in time for the weather to start getting colder, I have another pair of finished socks to add to my collection. Ten days from start to finish, these are super fast and fun to knit. I’d like to say that I looked at my stash and decided that the yarn I used would make an excellent pairing for this pattern. But in reality, it was already in a cake and on the top of the pile and I was too lazy at that moment to dig out my swift and winder and look for a different skein. So I grabbed it and knit away. And I have to say that the final product turned out just fine.

I’m not even sure where to begin with this post. My knitting has been sporadic, at best. My mojo was gone. My blog became that thing in the corner that I sort of ignored, and I stopped reading other peoples blogs too. I realize that this seems to have been a theme lately. But there is good news! So maybe I should start there.

The final piece of the puzzle has been found, and has fallen into place. In just over a week I start a whole new career!!!!!! I’ve been offered a job in the field I went back to school for, and I couldn’t be more excited. It’s part time to start, which has it’s ups and downs, but mostly ups. Primarily I can start enjoying myself again. I can knit and blog and run. (In fact I typed up a blog post before doing this one and it’s ready to go for later this week). I will have time to do things like school work, (I still have a couple of classes to finish), and blog and cook.

So I guess that brings me back to my knitting. I have a lot of WIPS on the needles right now, Too many, even. This happens from time to time. Either when I perceive my free time as being far more abundant than it actually is or when I am so stressed out that I can’t focus on anything long enough to finish projects. So my first goal is to tackle some of the WIPS and I have decided to focus on my socks.

I have four pairs of socks on the needles, and that is a little much. So for the rest of this week I will knit socks and see what I can accomplish.

First up, the Vanilla Lattes for my BIL for Christmas. These have been on the needles for far too long. I just can’t seem to finish them. Right now they look like this.

So close to being finished, yet so far away.

Next is a new pair of socks. This fun little pair is Ring of Fire. In theory, these should be a fast knit. The pattern is simple and well written and they should be done in no time.

Then there is the Child’s French Sock. On the needles since March I am more than ready to have these on my feet and keeping my toes warm in the upcoming winter months.

And finally is Nutkin. These have also been on the needles since March and again I am ready for them to be finished.

I’d like to point out that I am happy, but not completely delusional. I don’t expect to have all these finished in a week. I just want to be closer than I am now. My goal is to have them finished by the end of November. I do have to sneak in one more pair of socks for my SIL for Christmas, but those can wait for a few more weeks. I’m hoping to have at least one or two more pairs finished before I start those.

Also, my friend went to Rhinebeck and brought this back for me. I won’t be able to ignore it for too long.